This invention relates to the production of Vitamin D in the human body and more particularly to an improved light source and associated process to that end.
The human body's need for Vitamin D is well-known. There are traditional sources of Vitamin D for human use. For example, these include medicaments or chemical supplements, orally administered and otherwise, sunlight exposure causing Vitamin D production in human bodies and exposure to artificially created light to produce Vitamin D. These sources may be variably effective, with the efficiency sometimes resulting from the nature of the subject human being. For example, chemical sources or supplements are sometimes not processed efficiently in older bodies.
When sunlight is considered as a Vitamin D source over time, efficiency of Vitamin D production is a function of the location of exposure. Below the 37th parallel of the earth, sufficient sunlight exposure causing Vitamin D creation in a human body is only available about five or six months per year. Above the 37th parallel, sufficient exposure to sunlight for creation of Vitamin D in a human body only extends about five or so weeks per year.
Creation of Vitamin D in human bodies from exposure to artificial light has been known for some time, but is not without inherent drawbacks. For example, exposure to certain incandescent bulbs producing ultraviolet light (UV) in the spectral range of 250-400 nanometers (nm) has been known to cause the human body to internally produce Vitamin D since at least from about 1941. One informational source concerning UV light used in therapeutic applications is that of U.S. Pat. No. 6,828,576. Another is that of U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,297,155 and 7,229,467 and a disclosure of a lamp structure for tanning is published in the United States under Publication No. US 2007/0069624 A1 published Mar. 29, 2007. Both these patents as well as the Publication are herewith incorporated by reference as if fully expressed and set out herein.
Currently, incandescent bulbs creating UV in this spectral range consist of medium pressure mercury (Hg) vapor lamps. Such sources of ultraviolet light labeled for application to produce Vitamin D in the human body are available only from the assignee of this application and marketed under the trademark “SPERTI SUNLAMP”. Such lamps require ambient heat through an electric arc to activate mercury (Hg) molecules and to form an arc for producing ultraviolet energy. Once such a lamp is activated, a cool down period of about 8-10 minutes after stoppage is required before the lamp can be restarted. Moreover, the lamp radiation is limited in the area covered. So when such lamp is used to radiate human skin from a position in close proximity to a body, the area of coverage is very small. This requires excessive overall time in front of the lamp for more universal coverage (such as by relative movement between the lamp and body), and increases the possibility of tanning, which may be an undesirable product of such light treatment used for Vitamin D production or synthesis in the human body. Said in another way, the desire to increase exposure to light for Vitamin D production is offset by the disadvantage of simultaneously increased UV exposure and tanning.
One such current incandescent bulb has a power peak at a spectral range of 366 nm which is above the optimum wave length range for Vitamin D production.
There are yet further factors which are even more detailed, significant and important to consider in the matter of exposure to human skin to light of particular wave lengths.
It is known that exposure to light in the wavelength range of about 290 nanometers (“nm”) to about 320 nm can produce Vitamin D in humans. Nevertheless, exposure of human skin to light in the wavelengths of about 320 nm and higher can cause basal cell carcinoma (“bcc”) and squamous cell carcinoma (“scc”).
Both “bcc” and “scc” can be cured with high success rates if early detected and treated. About ten percent 10% (100,000) of skin cancer incidents in the United States (about 1,000,000 total cases), however, are of the melanoma variety. Of these, about 5% to about 10% (5000-8700) result in fatalities (these numbers and percentages of cancer incidents are exemplary approximations).
In the face of the dangers of light-caused skin cancers, the United States government and the United States medical industry have continually warned the populace against exposure to UVA and UVB containing sunlight. Sunscreens, shade, cover, clothing, reduced exposure time and the like are promoted as reducing risk. These expedients can help reduce the incidence of cancer in humans. On the other hand, reduced light exposure has the undesirable side effect of reducing natural Vitamin D supplemental production as a result of sunlight exposure of the human skin. Accordingly, taken to the extreme, the populace is warned about exposure to sunlight, but strict adherence to exposure prevention is resulting in Vitamin D deficiencies.
The adverse results of Vitamin D deficiency, such as rickets and other maladies are now more currently widespread in the United States. Nevertheless, the lack of Vitamin D supplementation by sunlight or artificial ultraviolet light has not generated significant medical attention until recently. The medical community has now begun to recognize maladies caused by Vitamin D deficiencies, some of which arise from increased attention to the warnings of the cancer-related dangers of sunlight exposure, and adherence to increasing standards of exposure limitations and prevention techniques.
Accordingly, even while the applicant is able to make and sell its various prior light products labeled to provide Vitamin D supplementation (as a function of its grandfathered status of such activities from the early 1940s), it is now desired to provide a light apparatus and a method for producing Vitamin D supplementation while significantly reducing the adverse effects of exposure to light in the cancer-causing dosage range of prior light-producing apparatus, and at the same time avoiding the cool-down periods required by incandescent sources and reducing the overall exposure times required for effective Vitamin D supplementation.
It is thus desired to enhance Vitamin D supplementation in humans by exposure to light while, at the same time, diminishing incidence of cancer in humans using light for Vitamin D supplement production.
It is also desired to produce these results together with overcoming the physical and functional disadvantages noted above respecting prior light sources.